Wednesday, August 28, 2013

And with those big orange blooms why wouldn’t it be? I bought this ginger at Rare Plant Research in 2010. That year, and the following two, there was only a pair of stems….but this year three! (and three blooms to top them) While the foliage is nice the flowers are what it’s all about with this plant...

Hedychium coccineum 'Tara' is one of the early blooming gingers, and in my experience it blooms every year without fail. I've grown a couple of others (long gone and almost forgotten) but this is the only one I've had success with. According to San Marcos Growers the fragrance of the flowers can be compared to that of a gardenia, but I sadly don’t get a fragrance from them.

That mysterious black thing on the right? It's just the hose...

SMG also notes that: “It was originally identified as a selection of Hedychium coccineum by Brian Mathew, but more recently as a form or hybrid of Hedychium gardnerianum by Hedychium specialist Tom Wood.” For purposes of this post I’m going with the name I bought it under.

The stats:

perennial from Nepal, in the Zingiberaceae (Gingers) family

grows 6-8 ft tall, 3-4 wide clumps

blooms in late summer

likes plenty of water and sun to part sun conditions

reportedly winter hardy down to 10F, of course dying to the ground and regrowing in the spring.

While taking these photos I noticed the interesting contrast between the upright orange flowers on ‘Tara’ and the pendulant orange flowers on the Grevillea victoriae on the right (above).

Of course a tropical flower like this deserves a proper blue sky background.

If you've got one please share your favorite plant of the week in the comments below! Here are a few recent fav's from other bloggers which you might enjoy:

22 comments:

Oh, I love this one, it's yummy! I might just have to give it a try. I planted a Hedychium my first year here, and it didn't return after the winter. I had it in a sort of shady spot with really good drainage. Maybe it's time to try again.

I think sun is the key! Not that I really have any idea but this one definitely gets more sun than the others that I've lost. Oh and because there were a ton of other roots in the area I didn't dig as deep a hole as I normally would have, it's planted kind of high...which may provide better drainage?

This is a gorgeous plant! I see gingers at Jungle Fever every year and tried a couple in the past, putting them in situations not to their liking. One didn't survive its first winter and the other, planted in sand in too little light, came back but never bloomed. Maybe I should try again because yours is so beautiful!

I was going to say it looks like Hedychium gardnerianum. I love the flowers but in my experience, they don't last at all, just a few days. It's like cactus flowers: You wait 360+ days for them bloom and they're gone in a heartbeat.

As for the flowers they don't last as long as I would like, but have never thought of them as fleeting. Maybe it's your heat? I do like the way the bloom structure looks after the flowers have dried up and fallen off too!

Oooo la la! that is one fabulous plant and I'm insanely jealous. I cannot get hedychium to bloom for me. I think my season is just too short or something. I'm going to have to try again though after seeing your pics! That would look incredible in the orange section of my tropical border.

That is lovely! I just found a tag of a hardy ginger I brought home from Far Reaches Farm that I saw in a famous plant explorer's garden (you know who). Cautleya gracilis, very cool. Can't write about it as a fave because it never returned after winter! But this one is literally a weed here, and you know it well: http://agrowingobsession.com/?p=46422